Author
Topic: My free debt elimination website (Read 34530 times)

This is a repost from the comments on the 2/2/2010 podcast. I wanted to get some more exposure for my free debt elimination website. I think it can really help people. Give me your feedback please!!

The post:

TSPers… about 6 years ago I, much like many others, had consumer credit card debt, student loans, car payments, etc. Since I am a big computer nerd I made a website which amortizes your various debts and gives you a payment plan, by no coincidence my plan happens to be the “debt snowball” though I have never heard of Dave Ramsey until I listened to TSP.

On the website you can see your interest savings and time savings… so whatever motivates you it is on there.

So after listening to tonight’s show I got motivated to bring my website back from the dead.

So I just spent about 3 hours reworking the site to remove the registration process and the sign-up process. You can now use 100% of the site without registration or BS

It is 100% ad free and 100% obligation free. I put it up there to help people out who are in debt. There is no monetization in the site.

This is awesome! I had a similar spreadsheet-driven version of this concept 15 years ago. Yours is a much better system. I especially like how you summarize everything, then break it out in increasing levels of detail including a month-by-month payment plan. You can print it out and check them off as you pay them. I love how it tells you how much interest you'll save, how many years it would take you at the minimum payment, and how many years it will take on this plan (a huge time savings!).

Here's an example from my plan (my student loan that seems to be lingering far longer than it should have):

This debt is $7,483.93 at an interest rate of 4%If you use minimum payments, you will pay $1,126.23 interest on this debtYou will pay $599.94 using the DebtMD System.Interest Savings: $526.29It would take you 7 years and 1 month to pay off this debt using minimum paymentsWith the DebtMD System, you will pay off this debt in 2 years and 10 monthsThis debt will be paid off 4 years and 3 months sooner using the DebtMD System.

Great website. I started getting serious about debt late last fall, and your site backs up some rough calculations I made. It was nice to have a second option that I could pay things of that much quicker than using the minimal payment plan. I was looking at owning my house in 5 years, your program says 4 years 11 months.

One glitch I think I found is that if you go back and try to change interest rates on the debts page it seems to want to keep using the original interest rate when you go back to the summery page.

Great website. I started getting serious about debt late last fall, and your site backs up some rough calculations I made. It was nice to have a second option that I could pay things of that much quicker than using the minimal payment plan. I was looking at owning my house in 5 years, your program says 4 years 11 months.

One glitch I think I found is that if you go back and try to change interest rates on the debts page it seems to want to keep using the original interest rate when you go back to the summery page.

Thanks for the resource.

I emailed Nick about the glitch. He'll change it no doubt. Good to have TSP beta testers for precisely these reasons.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this with us. I have a fair amount of debt and by sticking to this plan and contributing some extra money each month my household will be out of all of our debt by August of 2017. Now this may seem like it is far off but, in reality as we (my wife and I) continue to find ways to save and become more resourceful. Grow our own vegetables, buy other items on bulk or at a discount and learn more of the lost arts. The time will fly by and we will be so far ahead of the game. It is a very numbing feeling to see how much interest we are paying out. But this elephant will be eaten one bite at a time. Thank you again and God bless you and yours ladieu.

I guess in America you also treat mortgage debt as being less objectionable than other forms, i.e. credit cards etc.?Here in Switzerland virtually no one fully pays off debt on the residential property they live in. It wouldn't be tax efficient to do so.

If you view the interest your paying vs the tax your saving, here in the U.S. at least, it is better to pay off the house.

The main benefit is the freedom it creates in your life, and no investment chart of graph that says otherwise can trump the intangible benefits of being out from under mortgage... it is a dream of mine to be free in clear in 5 to 7 years

I guess in America you also treat mortgage debt as being less objectionable than other forms, i.e. credit cards etc.?Here in Switzerland virtually no one fully pays off debt on the residential property they live in. It wouldn't be tax efficient to do so.

The site looks like a great help. However, wouldn't it be most advantageous in the US to pay off all debt outside of student loans and mortgage payments first (so focus on credit cards first), since the interest is tax-deductible.

I am a recent college graduate, with a modest amount of debt. Mainly student and car debt. I am trying to focus on my car debt first - which has no tax deductible interest, and I am then taking my tax return from the student loan interest that I write off at the end of the year, and putting that entirely toward the principle on my student loans. Any thoughts on this strategy?

it does pay them off in that order. Unless of course your credit card payments are larger than you mortgage. The debt "snowball" pays off the smallest first and then rolls it up into the larger debts with the mortgage being last

I saw this post so decided to check out the website... LOVE IT!! Much easier to use than my complicated excel spreadsheet... According to the calculator I could be out of debt much sooner than I ever immagined! I am definitely using this!

Thank you for sharing this with us!! I have a spreadsheet that I have been using that took quite a long time to set up correctly. This uses the same principles and it's done is seconds. Much appreciated!!

It looks like you put a lot of effort into this site. I have my own system that does the same thing, so I can appreciate the amount of work you have done to make this available to people for free. My system is super personalized to me (a lot of information is stored in my head, and my monthly income is not a constant, so things fluctuate), so I will be happy to share this with others.

Great tool, thanks for posting, my family has already paid off everything except the mortgage, which is only 21 months old, with some effort, we can be paid off in March 2020! Sorry, TMI, but I'm excited folks.

Just wanted to give an update. I have paid off my 2ND debt and will have one of two credit cards paid off in two months. So excited about this program. With the proper motivation and discipline everyone can be debt free. Thank you again ladieu.